


Waiting In The Snow

by FluffPuffCat



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 14:20:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15487746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffPuffCat/pseuds/FluffPuffCat
Summary: Shion visits an old memory as he waits for reunion to come.For the No. 6 Zine.





	Waiting In The Snow

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was included in the No. 6 zine. Link to the zine:
> 
> https://no6zine.tumblr.com/post/175251233170/the-no-6-zine-is-here-download-link-this-link

Ever since Nezumi had made the promise that he would return, Shion had never stopped searching. He wondered if those stormy grey eyes were always watching him, waiting around a corner. The resolve behind Nezumi's words convinced Shion that if he just looked, he'd find him. He'd be able to make their reunion come true.

The old streets of the West Block were as grimy and decayed as he remembered them. In contrast to the peaceful roads of No. 6, the city here had the air of a slaughterhouse. He walked past tattered fruit and vegetable stands, meat shops that smelled foul, and red districts filled with people who'd tear him to shreds if he showed them any benevolence. There was no illusion here that living could come easy, that survival was a right.

He imagined that, for these people, life was the soup in a cauldron boiling eye of newt, a bat's wing, frog's fingers, and it was delicious.

At the entrance of a tea shop, Shion stopped and watched his reflection in the mirror. He was used to seeing Nezumi beside him when he came here. The loneliness of his solitary reflection felt like being stranded in a vast ocean, surrounded on all sides by raging water, a storm ripping apart the grey sky. He could go anywhere he wanted, but without Nezumi at his side, there was no anchor, no sense of belonging to tie him down. His body floated alone, carried by the tides, without a shore in sight.

Within those grey eyes, there was a universe of unspoken feelings and words left unsaid.

Shion entered the tea parlour and ordered a cup of hot Oolong tea.

These days, he only had Inukashi to hang out with when he was in the West Block. Rikiga was busy with his new journalistic ventures – not that Shion really wanted to hang out with him, anyway. When Shion and Inukashi went out for tea together, the topic of their conversation would always go back to Nezumi. 

Today, Inukashi wasn’t here. Shion’s mind drifted to the last conversation they had had together.

* * *

“You miss him, don't you?” Inukashi had said. 

“How could you tell?”

“You’ve always been as loyal as a dog. Every time I see you, it’s like I can smell your yearning for him. You're like a child who can't hide any feeling inside your heart.”

“I guess it's been months. Maybe I was being childish, but I expected him to come back already.”

“You expect a rat like him to honour his promises?”

“I trust him! I really do! And he wouldn't lie to me about coming back – I could hear the authenticity in his voice when he told me.”

Shion stirred the tea in his cup and blew at the steam rising out of it. More than anything, he trusted Nezumi to have been telling him the truth. He trusted Nezumi so much that he believed Nezumi would show him clues of his eventual return, signs that hid out in the open. If he searched hard enough, they'd reveal themselves to him, like stars twinkling in the winter night.

“Don't worry, Shion. Even though I'm not exactly his biggest fan, I do believe that Nezumi is the type of person who'd honour his promises. Especially one that he made to you.”

“Yeah. I think he'll be back soon.” Shion smiled.

“But I wouldn't get your hopes up too quickly. He's known for showing up late to his performances at the theatre just to make his fans more excited to see him.” Inukashi put on a sly grin. “I wouldn't be surprised if he does the same to you.” 

“Does he really do that?”

“It's what I heard from my dogs.” A chuckle.

“Well, I just have a good feeling that I'll see him again soon.” 

He tried to maintain hope, but he felt his brightness diminishing inside. Every day that passed without Nezumi added the burden of a lifetime. Still, he couldn’t give up. The moment he did, it’d be like cutting the thread that tied his life with Nezumi’s. “Since things in No. 6 are going smoothly, he probably won't delay our reunion for much longer.” 

“Like I said, you can believe him, but don't get your hopes up. To be honest, I want to see him again, too. It's just – he's a tricky one, and if he comes back, it probably won't be in the way that you expect.”

“What do you mean?”

Inukashi’s expression turned sour. “Expect him to come back, but be prepared for surprises.”

* * *

For weeks, Shion had mused over those words. They had given him the idea to go on a walk through the West Block to look for clues that Nezumi was around. Knowing that Nezumi was in the city, close to him, would ease the burden of waiting for reunion.  
While drinking his tea, he decided the theatre was the first place he’d look.

When he went to the theatre, he couldn't say that he was surprised at the lack of a crowd there. He didn’t expect Eve to still be working there, and without him, the theatre had probably lost most of its revenue. But if Nezumi did come back, he hoped he’d take up his old job again. They would always have a place to meet that way.

Pausing at the entrance of the theatre, he remembered a day many months ago when he had stood here waiting for Nezumi as well.

* * *

On that winter evening, the snow fell like white feathers from the cloudy skies and created a fluffy blanket over the muddy ground. Shion had finished his day's work washing dogs for Inukashi and had come to pick Nezumi up from the theatre. On that particular day, he had brought a book along with him, having been so engrossed in it that he read it whenever he found the time. It was a collection of fables and fairy tales from across hundreds of different cultures, which reminded him of the stories his mother used to read to him. 

Shion felt cold, but he waited for Nezumi out in the open nevertheless. He didn't want Nezumi to have to go home alone, and he wanted to share with Nezumi some of the stories that he'd been reading. Many of the people in those fairy tales resembled the grandiose characters from Shakespeare's plays that Nezumi loved enacting.

“My fans will chase me like vultures if I so much as show a shadow of myself. You’ll never find me coming out the front entrance, so don’t bother trying to pick me up after work,” Nezumi had said.

In spite of Nezumi’s words, Shion wanted to walk home with him.

There was a place near the theatre, a small "library" that was just far enough to be out of sight of the crowd. Actually, it was more like a shack full of books than a library, maintained by an old couple who loved books and the solace they brought them. 

Hoping he could catch Nezumi by waiting a little way off from the theatre, he went there and sat down on a platform amidst a pile of books.

The snow continued to fall. His jacket became wet, but he didn't care. Just like he hadn't minded walking out onto his balcony and screaming into the hurricane that fateful night.

Shion opened his book and began reading.

The cold wind blew snow into his white hair and left a few icy flakes stuck on his face, around his scar. His red jacket billowed out to his left. Silver bangs swept across his eyes. Still, he kept focused on the page, engrossed in the unfolding story.

It must have been only a feeling at first, a presence. Like a shadow of a rat in the corner of his eye. Though there was no sunlight, the shadow came and its eyes gleamed.  
Footsteps shuffled up to him.

Quietly, without words, the shadow sat down next to him and opened up a book. 

Shion leaned his shoulder against the shadow, and the shadow leaned back against him.

Two readers sat alone in the fading light of the winter evening. The night sky grew dark, and the sounds of a disappointed crowd began to fade away into the distance. Soft yellow lights began to crop up across the city to illuminate the chilly darkness.

When Shion looked up, he saw a pair of shining grey eyes.

* * *

The memory of those grey eyes startled him back to the present.

He remembered the place where it had happened, the old “library” that still remained. A yearning feeling grew inside when he walked there and saw the old place where they had sat. It opened a hole in his heart, a hole that couldn’t be mended by light. Only a shadow.

“Reunion will come. Right, Nezumi?”

Shion sat down on the mud-covered ground, not caring that it made his clothes dirty. His jacket had been through worse. 

He had even brought the same book with him, and he flipped it open to the page that he remembered he had been reading.

Just like on that day, he grew absorbed into the story, and everything around him faded away into the distance.

“Nezumi, I'll keep waiting for you.”

It wasn't snowing today. 

Earlier in the morning, the sky had been blue. But a cloud had arrived and covered up the sun so that it was just a little bit grey.

A warm breeze blew strands of white hair across Shion’s eyes while he read.

Deep down, he was afraid. Scared that Nezumi wouldn't show up. And in his heart, he couldn't rid himself of the feeling of being swept away in that stormy, lifeless ocean. The icy waters dragged him down to the depths, and when he pushed his head out over the surface to look again at the sky, there was only one source of light.

His heart, a burning red tempest, longed to see that flash of grey again.

But he knew that he didn't have to wait much longer. He believed in Nezumi. When he closed his eyes, he could already see him...

Grey eyes, light as a soft cloud lingering over the city, shrouding the warmth that he longed to hold close to his heart. They carried a gentle voice that resonated with the wind.


End file.
